Determination of effective diffusion coefficient and interfacial mass transfer coefficient of bovine serum albumin (BSA) adsorption into porous polyethylene membrane by microscope FTIR-mapping study

Here, a new method for simultaneous determination of diffusion coefficient D and interfacial mass transfer coefficient (or convective mass transfer coefficient) k was proposed for bovine serum albumin (BSA) adsorption into porous polymeric membranes. The experimental data for BSA concentration at different membrane depth and different time were determined from FTIR-mapping measurements. Then the diffusion coefficient D and interfacial mass transfer coefficient k were estimated from the calculated dimensionless concentration data at different time and membrane depth by a trial-and-error method based on the diffusion equation initiated in this paper. The diffusion coefficient D and interfacial mass transfer coefficient k evaluated in this manner are respectively: and . The theoretical concentration values calculated from the determined parameters were compared with experimental reading from FTIR mappings, which showed a good agreement between them, especially for the case of a relatively long-time adsorption.